Two steps from war

Army Chief of Staff Karel Řehka told Czech TV at the Nato Days event in Ostrava on Sat. that, on a scale of one to 10, with one being peace and 10 being war, we're now closing in on an eight. The trend is long-term, he said, and the recent incidents involving drones in Poland and MiGs over Estonia didn't bring a radical change. Russia is evidently testing us and thinks that it can get away with it, he said, so where we will be on the scale between peace and war truly depends on us. Pres. Petr Pavel told ČT a few minutes later that neither side wants a plane to be shot down but that we can't back down to evil and that violation of airspace is a reason to take down a plane. PM Petr Fiala told TV Nova a few minutes earlier that we're close to the red line but aren't yet on it. Then he backtracked and said he isn't saying that a direct attack by Russia against Nato is close but that he warns against thinking it can't happen. The message, it seems, is that the final two steps on the war scale could come at any time.